Recommendation by ICCAT Amending Recommendation 03-14 concerning minimum Standards for the establishment of a vessel fishing monitoring system in the ICCAT Convention area (14-09).

This Recommendation of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) requires each Contracting Party and Cooperating non‐Contracting Party, Entity, or Fishing Entity (CPC) to implement a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) for its commercial fishing vessels exceeding 20 meters between perpendiculars or 24 meters length overall. The vessels shall be equipped with an autonomous system able to automatically transmit a message to the Fisheries Monitoring Center (FMC) of the flag CPC allowing continuous tracking of the position of a fishing vessel by the CPC of that vessel. The CPC shall also shall take appropriate measures to ensure that the VMS messages are transmitted and received as prescribed. In order to facilitate the transmission and receipt of position messages, the FMC of the flag State and the FMC of the coastal State shall exchange their contact information and notify each other without delay of any changes to this information. The FMC of the coastal State shall notify the flag State FMC of any interruption in the reception of consecutive position messages.

2014-01-01